Issue: May 2024
Alcibiades
The Ancient Greek orator, philanderer, drunk, traitor and hero would have felt at home in modern politics
AI and the great data robbery
Silicon Valley has stolen huge amounts of original material in order to “train” its GPT models
This England
We should celebrate the glorious wartime cinematic masterpiece that Churchill wanted to ban
Pushing the boundaries
The map of the world is likely to be redrawn, thanks to the decline of post war Pax Americana, an expansionist Russia and China, and the push for ethnic sovereignty
The subsidy squeeze
Schemes such as HS2 cost billions of pounds while reducing UK productivity
British spies and the IRA
Blair, Clinton, Ahern et al were credited with putting together the Northern Ireland peace deal, but 800 British agents also played their part
The renovation of the Heal’s Building
Londoners are sentimental about the early-twentieth-century Tottenham Court Road store, Heal’s
Not amused: Victoria in her own words
Beneath the excitable phrases and endless underlining, Victoria’s correspondence doggedly promoted a coherent policy
When the Left thought free trade meant peace
Socialists, communists and liberals were united by a conviction that free trade could, and would, promote democracy and justice
Losing the battle, losing the war
The most pernicious effect of aligning art with political activism is that the distinction between the two is lost
